Today I'm going to show you how to make a delicious Korean crab stew called kkotgetang (꽃게탕). You can enjoy not only sweet crab meat but also the spicy, savory, and hearty broth and soft, chunky, earthy vegetables. Rice, kkotgetang, and a few more side dishes will make for a complete and delicious typical Korean meal.

This stew is ideally made with fresh, live Korean crabs called kkotge, but you can also make it with frozen kkotge (often sold in Korean grocery stores), or even try using the local crabs available to you. Kkotge can be translated as “flower crab” and they are the ideal crabs for this dish because they have a lot of meat and the shells are very soft. When we eat kkotgetang, we crush the shells in our teeth to get the soft, sweet meat out, so the pliant shell of the kkotge is perfect. If you try this recipe with your local crab, be careful not to damage your teeth when you eat!

In the video I use milky water from rinsing my rice to make the stew, but you can use just water. Using the milky water is something that I've always done, and I'm not even sure why I do it! I think it makes the soup tastier and gives it a bit of thickness.